Animals In Canada

Please follow proper zoo etiquette

When you think about it, that's a lot of people for the staff of each zoo, including the Magnetic Hill Zoo, to look after and assure they are adhering to the "rules" of the zoo.

Now, you're probably wondering, "Zoos have rules?"

The answer is yes, they do.

It's not as if these rules have been written down in a book that sits in the main entrance building and every zoo patron is required to read through it and follow each one, but there are a considerable number of unwritten rules in every zoo that are in place to help protect both visitors and the animals.

First, tapping on the glass of an animal exhibit at zoos and aquariums has become a major problem. Those who enjoy visiting the zoo should know that the animals that reside there are there to show us their natural instincts. That means that if an animal is sleeping when you get around to their exhibit, it's because that's what it would be doing in its natural habitat. Tapping on the glass, or rattling the fence to wake up a sleeping animal will probably only frustrate them. Think of it this way, if you were fast asleep, comfortable in you bed, and someone started tapping on your window or knocking on your door relentlessly, how would you feel?

Next is a rule to help protect both people and the animals in the zoo. Most zoos, including our own Magnetic Hill Zoo, are smoke-free zones. This means that those of you who smoke, cannot do so within the zoo.

Chasing the animals is also considered to be a form of animal harassment and is, of course, not welcome in the zoo. Although most animals do have specific exhibits that cannot be accessed by humans, there are some animals that run free. For example, the fallow deer contact area and the chickens that run loose in the barnyard. When you come in contact with these areas of the zoo, it is asked that you please refrain, and you ask your children to refrain, from chasing after the animals as it frightens them.

All of the animals at the Magnetic Hill Zoo have specific meal plans. This ensures that each animal has the exact diet needed to keep them healthy so feeding them anything that is not in their meal plan, which has been determined by an animal care worker, can be dangerous. This means that those who visit the zoo should not feed the animals. Quite often the zoo gets calls from people who ask whether or not they can bring the grains that they feed their own goats or deer or the like to feed to those that reside at the zoo. The answer is always no.

Air Canada not being forced to transport laboratory animals, activists ...

OTTAWA — Animal-rights activists are urging Air Canada to stop shipping live monkeys and other animals destined for experimentation, saying the airline can change its tariff rules if it wanted to.

But the airline says it is legally obligated to accept the contentious cargo.

According to a legal opinion solicited by the Humane Society International Canada, Air Canada can set and amend the terms of its tariffs.

“In our opinion, Air Canada is not legally obligated to accept monkeys as cargo,” said the opinion written by Lawyers for Animal Welfare.

On Jan. 22, an Air Canada employee notified animal protection organizations that dozens of monkeys from breeding farms in China were being transported by the Canadian airline for the use of research and experimentation.

Rebecca Aldworth of the Humane Society said that a handful of international carriers, including Air France, British Airways and Continental Airlines have refused to transport monkeys destined for laboratories around the world and hopes the Canadian airline would do the same.

Air Canada ceased shipments of beagles destined for experimentation following a 2007 complaint when a passenger said they heard dogs yelping on a flight from Montreal to Paris. On board were 70 to 100 beagles from Marshall BioResources, a company that breeds beagles for biomedical research.

Air Canada once tried to refuse to transport animals from a research centre in Barbados, but said in an email the airline is “required by law to carry this type of cargo even though we tried to refuse it.”

Fitzpatrick pointed to a January 1998 ruling from the Canadian Transportation Agency — the body that ensures Canadian airlines follow their self-determined tariff rules — that forced the hand of the airline to transport animals for research after the airline’s initial refusal.

Air Canada’s tariff rules allow for the refusal of cargo if it is “likely to cause annoyance to passengers.”

A CTA spokesperson said in an email the airline failed to apply the terms and conditions of its own tariffs when it refused to carry monkeys from Barbados to Canada for research and vivisection.

“While that (1998) ruling still stands, it is and has been within Air Canada’s prerogative to amend its tariffs to reflect its preferred practice on carriage of primates. It is not the function of the Canadian Transportation Agency,” said the CTA’s Alexandre Robertson.

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